Nine Syrian Families Expected in January

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Nine Syrian Families Expected in January

Forty-seven Syrian refugees, including close to 30 children, will arrive in Iceland next month. The people will settle in four municipalities, RÚV reports.

In response to a request made by the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, Icelandic authorities decided in September of 2015 to receive 103 Syrian refugees, and the ones arriving in January are part of that number.

The nine families, who will be arriving, have been staying in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Of the 47 people, 21 will settle in Reykjavík, 21 in Hveragerði and Selfoss, and a family of five will settle in Akureyri.

An Icelandic committee traveled to Beirut at the end of November to inform refugees about Icelandic society, equality, and citizens’ rights and duties, in addition to providing information regarding the communities about to receive them.

Some of the expected refugees have connections to Iceland through Syrians who have settled here already. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the Syrian families who have settled here are adjusting well.